Bacon sales sizzle to all-time high

Why those fried strips are the only food fad that will not die

It’s a question that veteran “As Seen on TV” marketer Scott Boilen asked when he was given the opportunity to introduce yet another bacon product to an already crowded marketplace. But Boilen couldn’t resist the invention, a simple gizmo that turns a few strips of bacon into an edible shell. And so the Bacon Bowl was launched by Boilen’s Allstar Products Group via a series of infomercials in late 2013.

In a brief period, Boilen’s New York-based company has sold more than two million units of the $10.99 bacon cooker, making the Bowl a success story potentially on par with the Snuggie, to name Boilen’s biggest “As Seen on TV” hit.

The lesson? Never underestimate the power of bacon, says Boilen: “It’s almost become a cult-like food.”

Indeed, for food marketers and foodies alike, bacon is the gift that keeps on giving, a culinary trend that unlike, say, cupcakes never seems to get old. Bacon sales in the U.S. have increased in each of the last four years, according to market researcher Information Resources, Inc. (IRI). In 2013 alone, sales climbed 9.5% to an all-time high of nearly $4 billion. A survey by pork supplier Smithfield even found that 65% of Americans would support the idea of making bacon our “national food.”

The bottom line: “It’s a bacon nation, and we just live in it,” declares The National Provisioner, a trade publication that tracks the meat business.

While one might think the rough economy would have stifled the boom, some food industry insiders and observers believe it’s what’s helped foster it. It’s no secret that in tough times, Americans turn to comfort foods from their childhood, as in meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Bacon falls in much the same category, says blogger and self-proclaimed “Bacon Queen” Amy Vernon, but it’s even more potent by virtue of its “distinctive smell.” In other words, when the scent of that sizzling pork fat hits your nostrils, you’re back at the family breakfast table.

And it’s quite possible the boom will continue even as bacon prices start to soar. With a never-seen-before virus killing millions of baby pigs in the past year, bacon prices are already up 13% in 2014. If anything, “Bacon Queen” Vernon believes the price hike will fuel demand. “It could up bacon’s cachet,” she says.

It also doesn’t hurt that bacon has adapted well to the foodie culture of the last decade, perhaps because it’s so multidimensional. “Need some fat to balance an acidic dish? Bacon. Need something salty to balance the sweet? Bacon,” says chef Kyle Rourke of the critically acclaimed Red Star Tavern in Portland, Ore.

It’s also a food that lends itself to kitschy festivity. Why else would there be such a thing as a Bacon Bowl? (Or for that matter, a bacon wallet?) Add it up and bacon, once a down-home food, has acquired a kind of cultural currency and cachet.

It’s “the gentrification of bacon,” says “Bacon Queen” Amy Vernon.

This never-ending bacon boom has taken many forms, beginning with the sheer varieties of strip bacon now on the market—thick-cut, thin-cut, specialty smoked, peppered, you name it. Smithfield, for example, has recently added cherry wood and apple wood-smoked and sea salt-flavored varieties to its lineup. There’s also a growing do-it-yourself movement in bacon, with chefs—or just plain bacon freaks—making their own. (All it takes is a slab of pork belly, a little brine and some time in the smoker.) “My house-made bacon usually maintains a more pork-like texture,” says Todd Mitgang, chef of the newly opened Bo’s Kitchen in New York, where the bacon is featured an upscale version of a BLT.

On top of that, there’s what might be dubbed the everything-is-better-with-bacon trend, with a host of new products commanding space on store shelves or on restaurant menus. Think bacon and chocolate (Black Pig Meat Co., a California-based gourmet brand, offers its Piggy Pops). Or bacon and booze (yes, there’s a bacon-flavored vodka). Or bacon and ice cream—a concept that has gone so mainstream that in 2012, the Burger King chain introduced its Bacon Sundae, billed as “a cool collision of salty and sweet.”

And if you’re really, really into bacon, there are now bacon-themed restaurants in New York and Chicago and bacon-themed festivals everywhere from Hoboken, N.J., to Ann Arbor, Mich. (the Bacon Today website compiled this list. There’s also been a bacon festival of the non-edible variety—as in a bacon film festival that bacon giant Hormel organized in New York last year.

Of course, there’s perhaps only so far the bacon boom can go. Even a few years ago, foodies were saying that they were starting to suffer from bacon overload—and “The Bacon Backlash,” to quote the headline of a Wall Street Journal article seemed inevitable. (As Boston chef Ken Oringer said in the story, bacon has “been overplayed so much and my taste buds are tired of it.”) And needless to say, many nutritionists take a somewhat dim view of bacon—not only because of its high fat and sodium content, but also because of the fact that bacon often contains chemical preservatives that have been linked to cancer. Nutritionists thus encourage bacon lovers to try alternatives, including tofu products that are often dubbed “facon.” The only problem? “Don’t expect it to be bacon because it isn’t and won’t ever be,” says Alicia Armeli, a nutritionist based in Washington state who’s researched the risks of preservatives in cured meats.

Still, Scott Boilen, the marketer behind the Bacon Bowl, says you can make a perfectly acceptable bowl from such bacon substitutes. Then again, he also says there’s nothing like the real thing, whether it’s combined with pastrami or a Caesar salad or mac ‘n’ cheese, to name some ideas suggested by Bacon Bowl users. But it all begins with that strip of pork that never seems to lose its salty, smoky and fatty appeal.

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